Alec Bohm has announced his departure.

Alec Bohm, the third baseman, deserves some of the credit for the Phillies’ impressive 16-10 start in 2024. He is off to a scorching-hot start at the plate.

He most likely can’t hold this level of heat for very long. This season, he is hitting.386 on balls in play, considerably above both the league average of.290 and his lifetime rate of.324. His exit velocity metrics are comparable to those from prior seasons, so looking forward, the BABIP is probably going to regress a little. But he’s also made some progress in the area of plate discipline that might be more long-lasting, given that they follow a growth trend that dates back a few years.

As a prospect in 2019, Bohm progressed from the Low-A to the High-A to the Double-A minor league ranks. In just 13.5% of his plate appearances did he strike out, walking in 10.6% of them. His eye at the plate had been commended by prospective evaluators, and those numbers matched that. In those minor league levels that year, he hit.305/.378/.518 for a 161 wRC+.

Bohm made a major league debut that launched him into the spotlight during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. For a 138 wRC+, he hit 338/.400/.481. Although his 20% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate weren’t as high as they were the year before in the minors, it was to be expected for a player making the jump from Triple-A to the major leagues for the first time.

However, it appears that the league made changes the following year, since Bohm had a terrible sophomore slump in 2021. 26.6% of his 417 plate appearances that year resulted in a strikeout. His walk-rate dropped to 7.4% as well. With just seven home runs in the season, his line of.247/.305/.342 and 77 wRC+ were quite low. He spent somewhat more than a month on the farm from late August to late September after being optioned to the minors.

But Bohm has been steadily improving, both as a player and as a pitcher, since that terrible season. His walk rate fell to 4.9% in 2022, but he only struck out 17.4% of the time, a nearly ten-point decrease from the previous campaign. His hitting line of.280/.315/.398 wasn’t particularly good, producing a 98 wRC+, but it was still an improvement over the previous season.

He followed that trajectory last season, lowering his strikeout percentage to 15.4% while modestly increasing his walk rate to 6.9%. With 20 home runs, he also set a new career best and improved his slash line to.274/.327/.437 with a 105 wRC+.

As was already established, Bohm has a tremendous slash line this year, helped in part by his high BABIP. However, he has also drawn walks at an incredible 13.5% clip, nearly twice as fast as he did the previous year. In previous seasons, he chased at a rate of 33.4%, but this year he’s only swinging at 27.8% of pitches outside the zone. His 79% contact rate on pitches beyond the zone is significantly higher than his 71.2% average from the start of the season, even when he chases. He’s reaching base at a rate of 93.6% on pitches in the zone, up from 86.7% at the beginning of the season.

Additionally encouraging is the fact that, unlike previous years, when he appeared to be leaning toward a short-side platoon role, he has been producing damage against both lefties and righties this year. versus the Southpaws, he presently has a lifetime wRC+ of 143, but just an 87 versus other pitchers. Those numbers were 92 against righties and 142 against lefties as recently as last year. He is at 205 and 149 so far this season, which is still a significant split but well above average considering the opponents he has faced.

Bohm has never been thought of as an exceptionally strong third baseman or as someone who was meant to play there for a very long period; therefore, defense is also very important to him. “Kris Bryant and Troy Glaus are the only players 6-foot-5 or higher to play more than 200 games at third base in MLB history,” said the Baseball America scouting report on Bohm heading into 2020. It’s improbable that Bohm will be the third.

Bohm has already surpassed the 200-game mark, having participated in 388 games at the hot corner. He has career totals of -11 outs above average and -49 defensive runs saved, so the outcomes have not been terrific.

It was declared following the 2023 campaign that Harper would not be moving back into the outfield and would instead remain at first base going forward. Bohm is set to start at third, as Kyle Schwarber is now essentially a full-time designated hitter.

Depending on whatever metric you believe, his glovework at third base may also show some evolution. DRS has remained incredibly negative, with Bohm at -10 or lower in the last three campaigns. Not even a month into the season, and he already has a -3 DRS. OAA, however, is a little more optimistic because Bohm’s score dropped to -9 in 2022 and then to +1 the previous year. Nevertheless, since he played first base for over half of the season—where OAA graded him a -6—that was in a smaller sample size. As of early 2024, he’s still at an even zero at third base, which means that since the beginning of the previous season, the OAA has rated him as about average at the hot corner. Bohm will probably have to give up third at some point, even if one adopts that more upbeat viewpoint.

Since Schwarber will be a free agent after 2025, Bohm and Harper might be able to share first base and designated hitter duties. However, Nick Castellanos is a mediocre defender and has a contract until 2026, so maybe he moves up to designated hitter after Schwarber’s is done. Castellanos is now hitting.177/.233/.198, and the club has expressed interest in dealing him in the past. As a result, there’s a good probability he won’t be on the team by 2026 (either through a trade or release).

Bohm’s arbitration contract is set to expire in 2026, but if the team is truly impressed with his bat, it may be extended after that. Even with Schwarber and Castellanos gone, though, the roster still isn’t quite right. Harper appears to be a first baseman and designated hitter for the remainder of his career; his contract expires in 2031. It isn’t ideal for teams to build their rosters with Harper and Bohm stuck in those two slots because regular players usually like to be able to switch up their DH position occasionally to get a little rest.